Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What primer...

Whats the hottest, most consistant magnum rifle primer? And if I were to get a Tubb SpeedLock system, the firing pin being lighter AND having a stronger spring, would I ever have to worry about puncturing a primer?

In my experience, the Winchester WLRM is the hottest, and very consistent as well. The Federal F215 is second.

As far as piercing a primer, I haven't used the Tubb kits, so I can't offer any first hand experience.

How do you check for the hottest primer? I was under the impression that the flame of a magnum primer was of a longer duration than an ordinary large rifle primer and that was the only difference between the two. If you have any good reference material regarding primer temperature please let me know as I would be interested in reading up on it. Thanks, Rick

You might want to look at the castingstuff.com web site. On the opening page, near the bottom is a page on primer testing. They rank primers by power and also give information on consistency. web page

I don't know about duration of flame nor how to test for it. I do have some information, however, about pressures and velocities developed by different primers. This is from an '06, and I chose as my base (index) load 62 grs. of H-4831 behind Hornady's 180 gr. SP using W-W cases and the WLR primer. I chose H-4831 as my index load because I wanted to eliminate the variations of the propellant shifting in the case.

The base load produced 2660 fps @ 54,600 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 12 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 800 psi.

The WLRM produced 2705 fps @ 57,700 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 10 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 600 psi.

The Federal 210 produced 2669 fps @ 54,500 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 3 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 400 psi.

The Federal GM210M produced 2663 fps @ 53,900, with a velocity standard deviation of 7 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 100 psi.

The Federal 215 produced 2676 fps @ 54,900 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 13 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 1200 psi.

The Federal GM215M produced 2683 fps @ 55,600 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 15 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 1100 psi.

The Remington 9-1/2 produced 2651 fps @ 52,900 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 4 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 600 psi.

The Remington 9-1/2M produced 2678 fps @ 54,800 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 10 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 1100 psi.

The CCI 200 produced 2672 fps @ 54,500 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 17 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 1000 psi.

The CCI 250 produced 2663 fps @ 54,000 psi, with a velocity standard deviation of 12 fps and a pressure standard deviation of 900 psi.

All of these loads were fired at a propellant temperature of 70� F, and the velocities and pressures were recorded using the Oehler M43.

I bleed Federal 215M Primers. I use them in everything that takes a Lg rifle primer. I read somewhere that it was introduced specifically for the then new 378 Weatherby cartridge.

I have a Tubbs Speedlock firing pin assy in my 257Wby and have not had any problems with piercing primers. Good luck...

If I recall my history correctly, the Fed 215 was developed for the .300 Weatherby. I'm pretty sure it's been around longer than the .378 WM. E

The 300 Weatherby Magnum was introduced back in 1944, but I'm not sure when commercial rifles became available for it. I'm pretty sure the 378 Weatherby Magnum was introduced in 1953 as a replacement for the 375 Weatherby Magnum, which was simply a blown-out 375 H&H case which did not have the internal capacity of the 378. Again, I don't know exactly when commercial rifles became available for it.

I know that early on Weatherby had a line of rifles based on an FN Mauser before they migrated to the Mark V action. I don't know exactly when or why the Federal 215 was developed, but I used them almost exclusively in the 300 Weatherby Magnum I had back in the early 70s, which was a Mark V.

Nope it was 1953 made for the 378! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />